maybe try for rebirth
by gossamer lights
Summary: in which thalia grace tries for rebirth in a completely different way. caravan park AU!


_**AN: We never explore Thalia and Jason's family dynamic in the book series, so I thought it would be interesting to put my own spin on it. Here's a story in which Thalia and Jason are twins and grow up together in a caravan park, and Thalia tries for rebirth in a different kind of way.**_

_Context: Set in Camp Half-Blood, a caravan park in Chicago. Modern AU!_

* * *

There was something pathetic to Thalia about blowing out the candles alone. Nineteen candles flickered feebly atop the cake sitting on the boulder.

"Happy Birthday, darling."

Her mother had handed her a hastily wrapped gift and pulled her into a hug as they sat on the rocks of the breakwall, on the edge of where Camp Half-Blood met the beach. Thalia tried to smile gratefully and squeeze her mom back, but she was too acutely aware of where they were sitting to enjoy the whole birthday celebration at all.

Jason had cancelled the trip home yesterday. _Sorry Thals, _he had said. _Something came up, and I just can't leave San Francisco this weekend. Happy birthday to us. I'll Skype you tomorrow, I promise._

Back in high school, she had been too caught up in her own life to realise what people had been doing to Jason behind her back. AP Physics, AP Chemistry, she was going to get a scholarship out of her caravan park. She loved Camp Half-Blood but there was so much opportunity out there, and her excitement for her future blinded her from seeing the present. The day she found Jason huddled in a heap behind the garbage bins, silent and heavily bruised, she had marched up to every single person in the grade and demanded an explanation. Eventually, she found out that the culprits had actually been her closest friends. Luke, Grover, Annabeth - they were huddled in the corner, actively avoiding her gaze.

Now as she stood on the breakwall, looking out across the choppy gray waves, she realised that it had only been six months ago. She had cut off contact with her so-called friends the day after they guiltily admitted to bullying her brother for no good reason other than their own entertainment. And afterwards, even though Jason had told her it was fine, there was always an unspoken distance between the two of them.

School had ended two months ago and university hadn't started yet, but Jason had left for San Francisco as soon as they graduated. He was meant to come back for their nineteenth birthday, and she had held onto the hope that he would want to come see her, but the empty patch of rock next to Thalia indicated otherwise.

_I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, Jason, _she thought. If only she had found out earlier; if only she had asked him why he was crying alone on the rocks.

She remembered the routine they had when they were younger, the one with Jason and her dad. After school, the ocean would be a clear light blue gurgling against the boulders on the breakwall. Camp Half-Blood had this cool caravan park tradition of letting a different family paint a boulder each year. The boulder they painted had been dislodged in a storm, and they had since nicknamed it 'the wobbly one'. They would grab a muffin from their mom and beeline for their wobbly boulder, flip-flops slapping against the concrete, racing together past the Jacksons' caravan.

When they were fifteen, their dad got lost at sea. No explanation from the Coast Guard, no body found. _A freak accident, _they had said. The family struggled to take care of each other after that, each finding different ways to cope with the loss. Her mother spent every waking moment with her newfound network of strong hippie ladies, _Hera's Wolf Society_, leaving Thalia and Jason to cope by themselves.

Thalia didn't go to the boulder anymore. Every day after school, she and her new boyfriend Luke would go surfing at the beach near the end of the breakwall. But every day, she would see Jason sitting alone on their wobbly boulder, kicking at loose pebbles with his sneakers. Surfing had been fun, but she missed racing to the boulder after school.

"What a loner." Luke's blunt voice woke her from her daze.

"That's my brother, babe." she had spat back. As she propped her elbows up on her surfboard, she squinted against the glare of the sun to properly make out Jason's face. Were his cheeks wet with tears, or was it just sunny? Maybe she would go over now to make sure he was okay.

"Yeah, well it's still true." Luke jerked his head towards the horizon, strands of wet hair flicking water into Thalia's left eye. "You coming?"

A big wave was heading in. Luke started to paddle out. Thalia had remembered looking at Jason and looking back at the wave.

That was one of many opportunities that Thalia should have taken to reach out to him, but didn't. And now even in her mother's warm embrace, she always felt alone.

* * *

It had been five years since she had left that caravan in Chicago, and gotten her own apartment ten minutes away. Thalia was in the final year of her education degree and she was moving to Long Island Sound next year with her new fiancee, some place he found called New Rome.

She spent her free days at the beach near the caravan park, working as a lifeguard.

Nobody ever really needed saving, kids who grew up in Camp Half-Blood were strong swimmers. But she enjoyed the job, and seeing kids always helped her feel less lonely.

Today, however, as she was doing her usual lap of the beach, she saw three boys huddled in a circle, glancing furtively at another boy sitting alone on the rocks less than a metre away. Something about the way they stood in a huddle sparked recognition in Thalia, the shortest one smirking and slowly ambling forward, while the other two looked at each other, almost reluctant to follow. The thought hadn't even fully registered in Thalia's mind when the three boys all picked up a fistful of sand and hurled it at the boy on the rock.

As he spluttered sand, the other boys jeered insults.

"Baby Percy has sand in his eyes! Percy, why are you coughing? Do you need some water, Percy?"

They turned around to grab their water bottles from the sand, only to see Thalia towering over them. She stood with her arms crossed, completely fuming, but before she say anything, a voice shouted out from behind her.

"Hey! You three! What do you think you're doing? Where are your parents? Apologise, now." A teenage girl with kaleidoscope eyes and a blue feather braided in her hair strode over and glowered at them. The three boys muttered small '_sorry's_ and walked sheepishly back to their parents. Something about how familiar the shortest one's guilty expression made her want to cry.

She was watching the girl having a stern conversation with each of their parents, when a small sniffle to the left of her caught her attention. Percy, the little boy, had started to cry.

A crying boy on the rocks. The surf, the sand. The sun peeking out behind a cloud in the horizon.

This time, she would take the opportunity that had left her regretting the majority of her teenage years.

She sat down on the boulder and looked at the boy, whose cheeks glistened with tears.

"Percy, right? I'm Thalia. Are you okay?"

* * *

**_AN: Reviews are welcome! I hope you have a wonderful day!_**

**_xx hayley_**


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